Dear Stuart,
Many people nowadays use a quite large diameter first fret
(around 1.00mm or even more on a relatively small [60cm] lute) but, as
Martin points out, the best record of actual historic fret sizes is
John Dowland (in Varietie) which suggests significantly thinner frets -
these allow a lute to be 'set fine' ie minimum distance between string
and fingerboard at the higher frets, so easing higher fret fingering.
I try to aim for first fret at 0.90mm on this size of instrument but,
again as Martin points out, this depends on the set of your particular
instrument. So that if the neck has pulled up a bit, or even
incorrectly set from the start, you can use almost same diameter frets
right up the fingerboard (around 0.70mm) - like a modern 'classical'
guitar. But if the neck set is in the same plane as the belly (at the
bridge) you may well need graduated frets. As said, I aim for a
setting on this size lute which allows from 0.90 (first) down to around
0.50mm (8th fret).
Thomas Mace also gives some info (again, hurrah Thos.!): 'with a fine
smooth File, cut the Notches to a convenient depth so that all your
Strings may lye at an even and equal height, from the Finger-Board,
which would be about the thickness of a Half-Crown, or a little
more;'. So if you know the thickness of a halfcrown in 1676 you know
the distance from the underside of the strings to the fingerboard at
the nut he's advocating and hence you may judge the diameter of his
ideal first fret.
Finally, Martin raises the matter of double v single loop frets: in
fact there is no early evidence for the use of single loop frets with
the noticeable exception, again, of the all-inclusive Thos Mace who, it
should be noted, when it comes down to describing how to tie a fret
desribes the usual double loop. You may care to see my paper on this
very subject in the forthcoming issue of FoMRHI Quarterly.
regards
Martyn
From: Martin Shepherd <mar...@luteshop.co.uk>
Subject: [LUTE] Re: fret gut
To: "Lute List" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Date: Tuesday, 14 August, 2012, 21:14
Hi Stuart,
It depends on the height of the nut. The first fret has to be as high
as it can be without buzzing (in normal play, and this is surprisingly
high), and so on up the neck. This may involve reducing fret sizes as
one goes "up" the neck, it may not.
Historically Dowland suggested using a fourth course string (about
.75mm?) for the first fret, but he was talking about double frets.
Best wishes,
Martin
14/08/2012 21:01, WALSH STUART wrote:
> Is there a set of standard gauges of fret gut for a typical G
lute,
> 60cms string length?
> And, if so, what are they?
> Stuart
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